Singapore-based Paktor has relaunched its dating services app in South Korea as Swipe. With the launching of its services, the company’s presence is expanded into seven countries namely Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Paktor CTO and co-founder Jing Shen Ng talking about the reason behind the rebranding in the region said that they had to tweak the app both aesthetically and with features that will make the locals feel right at home. In nutshell, they wanted to penetrate into the local market. Jing adds,

We understand the complexities of moving to a new market and it is not just about releasing the app into the App Store or Play Store.

“Paktor” switched its name to “Swipe”, as the syllable Paktor has no meaning to local and Koreans have the affinity to relate themselves with the brand name. The team sat down together and came up with Swipe.

Paktor has now set up a new office in Seoul and has hired from within the country to tap the business there with sufficient local knowledge. Ng stated over in Seoul for a month with the Korean team, had over 20 meetups with Koreans at cafes and went to various startup events to gain valuable user insights.

The app has brought on several new features inspired by the local culture. It has introduced Photo Pick – which lets users rate other users’ profile photos and get 10 Paktor points in return. The users can also show more user information like education, job and Facebook interest groups.

The startup has also revamped the user to suit the Koreans’ preferences. The app boasts a brand new look but retaining features like Paktor Rewards, Paktor Guess and One-Touch Gifts. Paktor’s Head of Design, Lay Hiang Low, said,

It was a challenge to give the app a graphical uplift but I am really satisfied with how it turned out. The light coloured scheme actually made the app look entirely different.

Paktor has secured a funding of US$57.5 million till date and has a user base of 20 million users globally.

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